83rd annual Oscars, part 9: Black Swan's Natalie Portman beats Annette Bening

Looks like Annette Bening will have to continue to wait.

Black Swan's Natalie Portman, looking gorgeous in a purple gown and very pregnant, has just won the best actress award at the Oscars, presented by last year's best actor winner (and this year's best actor nominee) Jeff Bridges. She beat The Kids Are All Right's Annette Bening, who has been nominated four times for an Oscar but has never won.

Portman's performance inherently entailed more showmanship, emotional extremes, and technical skill (for her ballet dancing), which gave her an edge over Bening's performance as a lesbian struggling to keep her family together after her children contact their sperm-donor father.

What could have also played a factor is that Portman has also very visible recently. She's currently starring in another film, No Strings Attached (showing range by appearing in a rom-com) and is also in trailers for the forthcoming Thor. Bening, in comparison, has not been as visible.

This is the first win for Black Swan tonight. Darren Aronofsky lost to The King's Speech director Tom Hooper in the best director category.

For part 8, click here.

For part 10, click here.